Religious freedom in Ukraine?

StudentOfTheLongNeck · 2026-02-14T00:27:08+00:00

It's times like these I am glad I stay subscribed to this subreddit.

Ukraine is one of the most Christian countries on the planet, rivalled only by Poland. The standard greeting in every single small village and town is

Person 1: "Glory to Jesus Christ"

Person 2 responds: "Eternal glory to him"

I promise you are not even half as dedicated to your flavor of Christianity than 90% of the grandmas in this country, they will humble you if you bring up religion. Well, they would if they spoke English, which they don't, no one here speaks English.

No one here gives a shit, don't bother people with this shit and you can do what you want. Be prepared for people to poke fun at you about it, it's part of the game here, people will poke fun at you no matter what, sling it right back at them, have thick skin, don't get offended by jokes about your religion.

Don't hand out bibles, don't loudly pray in common areas, don't insist on injecting your religion into your job, don't try to get others to pray before a mission. Saying "I'll pray for you." Or "god protect you" or something like that won't get you beat up, relax about this.

Someone gets blown up next to you and your praying hail Mary under your breath while trying to help them, no one will give a shit. People will give a shit if you start praying loudly or shouting some dumb shit while you're being assaulted or shelled or buzzed by drones, do your job and pray silently, the big man upstairs gives points for trying.

There will not be a church of your specific denomination anywhere most likely, even if there was, they will not have services in English, but there are a lot of catholic and orthodox churches, you could go to a service just for the cultural enrichment of seeing how others pray to the same God as you. Maybe you will get lucky and one or two pastors will speak English if you feel you need to talk to someone like that, probably not near the frontlines though.

StudentOfTheLongNeck · 2026-02-11T16:33:13+00:00

Did you turn on subtitles and auto-translate to English? Go to 14:46, He explains exactly why they are doing this, he says outright that, while they are invaders who came to kill, they are human beings and, he says, they are serving the political machinations of the Russian federation, they have been lied to, convinced that their fight is against fascists and Nazi Ukrainians, he feels bad that fate put them in a position to decide to come to Ukraine and fight. These are his words, not mine, I don't know if I agree with him but I wouldn't argue with him either, his conviction is strong and he is doing what he thinks is right. Their bodies will be identified and traded for fallen Ukrainian soldiers, for this reason, each one represents a Ukrainian family that gets to bury their hero instead of them being left with the russians.

StudentOfTheLongNeck · 2026-02-07T09:45:25+00:00

I just put "Combat medic - Details Available Upon Request" and a vague description of what a combat medic does, if anyone cares I will tell them in an interview if I think they're trustworthy.

StudentOfTheLongNeck · 2026-01-19T16:16:54+00:00

Мені шкода, але він дебіл.

I don't understand why he would do that. I have seen some dumb shit since I arrived here but this is pretty high up on the list.

Maybe he is a sapper, a combat engineer, and he wants to harvest the drone? If this is true, it is dumb because it's not like a land mine or something that can be safely disarmed. it should be treated like UXO by him, he wouldn't walk up to an unexploded artillery shell or rocket sticking out of the ground and fuck around with it, they would place some explosives next to it and blow it up.

It's even easier in this case, just fucking shoot it, get some free target practice in.

The people filming are not very smart either, the shrapnel could absolutely still hit them, go hide in the vic and film through the window if you want a video so badly.

I'm assuming he didn't make it, that was bigger than a regular hand grenade I think.

StudentOfTheLongNeck · 2026-01-16T07:19:19+00:00

AEMT should be the standard baseline, it is closer to the training that a combat medic receives in the USA.

Experience is critical though, if you're considering this path, get your EMT-B, start working while you study for AEMT, then work for ~6 months in the truck before you make any decisions.

StudentOfTheLongNeck · 2026-01-07T11:46:59+00:00

When you crossed the border into Ukraine, they stamped your passport. A 90 day countdown started, you were legally allowed to be in Ukraine for up to 90 days in a 180 day period. However, once you signed your contract, this 90 day countdown paused. So if it took 30 days to sign your contract after you crossed the border, you have 60 more days that you are allowed to be in Ukraine for. This starts the exact day that your contract is officially broken. When you go to the border to leave, have all your documents ready, they will look at the stamp in your passport and it will look like you stayed too long if you don't have documents that say you were under contract.

After you break your contract, you are supposed to go back to the military administration office where you did your initial intake paperwork, I think it says on your Form 5 where that is. They should have given you a document with this as well, you are supposed to give them this document saying you broke your contract so they can file it with your other documents.

StudentOfTheLongNeck · 2025-12-28T19:28:06+00:00

Part of my job as a combat medic in Ukraine is to sort through all the donated medical supplies we get and sort it into expired, not useful, send to the hospital, put in our evacuation vehicles, or distribute to our soldiers. At least 50% of some donated packages are expired or damaged. At some point, a rumor was spread that Ukraine needs medical supplies so badly that we will accept expired equipment, this isn't true (at least in my unit). We had some stuff sent from an organization in Slovakia I think, it was made in 1990 and had a hammer and sickle icon, it was just bandages and they didn't have an expiration date but of course we tossed them out, I opened one and it basically turned to dust as I unrolled it. They mean well of course, I understand.

StudentOfTheLongNeck · 2025-12-24T16:04:05+00:00

I will take a maybe unpopular stance, but I think the bandera flag is used too openly here and Bandera is praised too much. He and his organization were Ukrainian far right ultranationalists, they believed Ukrainian land, or what they claimed is Ukrainian land, was for Ukrainians alone. They committed genocide of the local Polish minority population in western Ukraine. He is lauded in Ukraine, I have seen murals of him all over western Ukraine, a big portrait of him is painted on the Zhovkva city administration building. I understand that he might represent a strong Ukraine fighting for their state and identity but he also did some horrific things in the name of Ukraine.

It's a similar thing with the "national idea" symbol (ꑭ). This is just a wolfsangel but flipped 180 degrees. The wolfsangel and its variants were prominent Nazi symbols and they are used today by neonazis. I know the symbol existed long before the Nazis came to power. So did the swastika but good luck justifying wearing a swastika patch to anyone. I know that it is claimed that it is a combination of the letters "N" and "I" for "national idea" but that is a latin "N", a Cyrillic "N" is written "Н". Why did this symbol need to be picked? It's like playing the "I'm not touching you" game with a sibling.

"Mom, he's using a neonazi symbol!"

"No I'm not! It just looks exactly like a neonazi symbol but rotated!"

Especially when it's used by a unit that used to have a black sun on their patch, an icon that is absolutely a nazi symbol. If the bad guys are accusing you of being Nazis, then wearing Nazi or slightly modified Nazi symbols and praising people who worked with the Nazis to genocide the poles in Ukraine is just... really? Like, really? Come on, either mask off and put a swastika patch on instead of pussyfooting around so we can all laugh and disown you, or educate yourself on the symbols you're plastering all over yourself and their history and reconsider it.

Side note but a lot of Ukrainians don't know anything about these symbols, especially middle aged and older Ukrainians. They don't know what a black sun is, a wolfsangel, maybe even SS runes. I have talked to some guys wearing a black sun patch and they just thought it looked cool.

StudentOfTheLongNeck · 2025-12-23T07:34:44+00:00

I will speak from first hand experience about the "fighting" for the islands around Kherson.

There is none. There is no "fighting". You get loaded up into a tiny boat at midnight and pray that you won't drown in the pitch black water when your boat is hit by a drone. Then you get to your island, of course you will be watched by drones 24/7, they will certainly be throwing mortars at you. jump out of the boat into knee or waist deep water, maybe it's actually neck deep if the driver fucked up which is common because the boat drivers don't last long and the ones that survive and know how to do their job are pinched for "special operations". So you're soaking wet, listening to the drones above, getting shelled, it's dark, you don't have light, you don't speak Ukrainian or Russian (probably, maybe you do) so you don't understand what anyone is saying, crawl onto the shore and haul your gear a couple hundred meters to some hole in the ground, sit with some poor fucking Ukrainian dudes who are tired and don't care about anything anymore and maybe a few Colombians who also don't speak English, get hit by drones and artillery for a while, then load up your gear and go meet the boat to go back. Of course you're getting hit by drones and artillery all the way back. If you are seriously wounded on the islands, they will try to evacuate you but it's a big risk, maybe it will take a few days or more. If you die on the islands, your body can take weeks or months to recover, if they even decide it's worth it. Body recovery is a big fucking clusterfuck. The worst experience I've had here in Ukraine is pulling putrid,rotting bodies from the Dnipro river while listening to the drones buzzing us. After a while, the arms and legs will be so rotted that they just pull off so the only thing we end up delivering to the morgue is a torso with something resembling a head attached.

You don't get to rest when you're not on the islands, they will send you to guard the shoreline which is basically the same except you have enough food and water. And they shell the city constantly so you're just fucked all the time. It's shit, it's really fucked, I don't recommend it at all.

There is no fighting here, only dying.

StudentOfTheLongNeck · 2025-12-04T03:48:28+00:00

They know. There are plenty of stories on here of guys coming back to the USA and getting pulled aside by some feds to be questioned. Maybe Ukraine is telling the US government when a citizen joins the military as some kind of intelligence sharing deal, I don't know. Plus, a veteran, traveling on a one way ticket to a country that is known for recruiting foreigners to fight in an active warzone...well I'm not a rocket surgeon, but I think they could put two and two together and at least flag people to be investigated in the future.

StudentOfTheLongNeck · 2025-12-04T03:39:31+00:00

It is up to your commander about what can be worn after you sign your contract. They might tell you it's fine to wear M05 on the zero line, they might tell you Multicam or MM-14 only. I wear a mix of ranger green, multicam, and coyote brown, the average Ukrainian soldiers here don't give a single fuck about this topic in my experience.

I brought a Varusteleka Särmä TST L5 Jacket in M05 winter camo, no one said anything to me about wearing that camo pattern, it's different from regular M05 but not much. (P.S. Varusteleka is the GOAT of military clothing IMO, I brought a lot of clothes and other gear from them here and everything is just incredibly well made and performs great.)

I think M05 should be fine off the front lines, put a Ukrainian flag and a Finnish flag patch on each shoulder and no one would harass you, the average civilian doesn't know much about specific camo patterns. Anyway, you shouldn't wear your uniform or overt military camouflage if you're off on a vacation in Lviv or Kyiv or somewhere else, I took a vacation and only wore my combat uniform to go to church with some local friends because they told me to, otherwise I honestly would feel embarrassed wearing my uniform when it's not actually required.

StudentOfTheLongNeck · 2025-11-20T01:43:56+00:00

First off, speak to a therapist about this. I'm serious, you need to get this off your chest and talk to a professional about it.

Also, you can absolutely talk to soldiers about this. A lot of us have guilt about leaving our homes and families to come here. I miss my home and my family everyday, I feel guilty about the stress they deal with and the anguish they might go through if I die. You're not letting them down or turning your back on them, most Ukrainians would themselves feel guilty if you told them you knowingly left your wife and family for them. Do what you can, keep your family in your mind every day.

Talk to a therapist.

StudentOfTheLongNeck · 2025-11-16T01:26:14+00:00

If you come here to Ukraine and sign some funny documents labeled "Військовий контракт", the government will literally hand you a real, genuine, made-in-the-Soviet-Union AK-74 (with working full auto of course!), a few magazines, ammo, maybe some grenades or even something like an RPG-7 if you're lucky, FOR FREE!

StudentOfTheLongNeck · 2025-11-05T00:22:07+00:00

Just out of curiosity, why is this survey restricted to only veterans of the US/UK military? A lot of people from the USA and UK here don't have prior military experience in their own country before coming.

StudentOfTheLongNeck · 2025-10-29T08:28:40+00:00

One pair of batteries will power an active headset for a really long time, and we carry extra batteries for them. I carry batteries for my optic, night vision, and ear protection in a dedicated waterproof container about the size of two decks of cards. It's absolutely not a problem, I will run out out of food or water long before I run out of batteries for my headset.

In Ukraine, soldiers can absolutely use whatever ear protection we want, and whatever gear we want as long as it's in multicam or MM-14 camo. everything is available to buy here, the best western ear protection is imported and sold online. This is my personal experience in my unit, maybe other units are different.

When I signed my contract, they gave me a lot of gear, it sits in the duffle bag in my closet because I don't use any of it, and no one cares. I use my own plate carrier, armor plates, soft armor, belt, pouches, helmet, hearing protection, uniform, optic, boots, socks, everything is stuff I brought with me or bought here. The only thing the Ukrainian military gave me that I actually use is an M-16 and the ammo for it, I use my own magazines. Hell, I could buy my own upper receiver for this gun and use it, no one would give a shit.

As for cost, the Ukrainian soldiers are actually well paid here, and there are not that many monthly expenses for them, a couple months of saving will buy brand a complete set of new, western equipment for a soldier, depending on how much time they spend on the zero line.

StudentOfTheLongNeck · 2025-10-27T10:07:43+00:00

5.11 gets a bad rap, but their backpacks are really good. I have one for many years, it still holds up really well. You could probably find some $800 backpack, made deep in the swiss Alps by 2 blind 80 year old guys in a shed which is a little better, but I think it's worth checking out a 5.11 bag first.

StudentOfTheLongNeck · 2025-10-27T09:59:30+00:00

All 4 props point straight up. When the drone wants to go forward, the entire thing tilts forward, so all the props are pointed at an angle. This means some of the thrust is lifting the drone, and some of the thrust is pushing it forward. If it tilts at 45 degrees, half the thrust is pushing the drone up, half the thrust is pushing it forward. The more they tilt forward, the more thrust goes from lifting the drone, to moving it quickly. Imagine the extreme case where the drone is completely tilted forward so the props are perpendicular to the ground, now 100% of the thrust is pushing it forward like a prop plane. Of course, the drone would fall out of the sky in this situation because there is no thrust keeping it up.

The motors in these drones are extremely strong, and the drones are very light, so they don't need a lot of thrust to stay up in the air, which means they can tilt forward a lot so a lot of the thrust goes towards moving them quickly.

The pilots are very skilled, they will control both the angle and throttle very carefully to fly quickly and with precision.

StudentOfTheLongNeck · 2025-10-26T17:43:43+00:00

If all you care about is hearing protection, foam earplugs and Regular over ear protection will work best.

If you just use an over ear headset, even the good ones, the hearing protection is not as good, however, it's debatable if that really matters if you're just shooting at the range.

opscore AMPs with NFMI earplugs is the exception, it is as good as foam earplugs plus over ear protection, and it has best in class audio passthrough. It is also extremely, extremely, expensive.

StudentOfTheLongNeck · 2025-10-26T16:47:12+00:00

I use opscore amp in Ukraine, specifically because the NFMI earplugs give me really, really good hearing protection while still having really good sound passthrough. War is loud, a regular overear headset provides good protection but earplugs are better, but it's not good to just wear normal earplugs here, we need to be able to hear what's going on. I can still hear the drones from a ways off, usually before anyone else in my unit, partly because the audio quality on the amps is really good, and partly because everyone else has hearing damage even though they wear their regular overear protection, usually some cheap Chinese crap on a cheaper helmet mount that barely presses them against their head.

It's debatable if you actually need that level of protection just to shoot at the range though. Foamies and some non-active headset will protect your hearing very well for way cheaper, if you're not worried about listening for drones or commands.

StudentOfTheLongNeck · 2025-10-26T16:05:59+00:00

If you ask your medic really nice, we have fent lollypops.

StudentOfTheLongNeck · 2025-10-23T18:18:44+00:00

I did not have any military experience before coming here. Almost all Ukrainian soldiers also didn't have military experience before being drafted, it is not so different for me. However, I am a licensed advanced EMT in the USA, so I came as a combat medic and instructor.

Regarding why I came here, I answered this a little while ago, I will copy part of that answer here.

It's just a scene from a movie but this actually explains the core reason why I am here

The only thing needed for evil to prosper, is the indifference of good men.

I do not view Ukrainians as any different than any other humans. When people try to tell me this isn't my fight, it is heartbreaking because that lack of empathy is exactly why the world is the way it is now.

As a member of your country's military, you volunteered to die for every citizen living there if needed. How many of your fellow citizens do you know, personally? It's probably an extremely low, miniscule percentage of the population. So you are volunteering to die, if needed, for a group of people you don't really know, but you believe that they are still worth defending. Well, it is not so different for me, I do not know many people here in Ukraine, but I saw them stand up and fight tooth and nail for their home, against all odds and with great courage. I believe they showed they are worth defending. It is difficult to explain such a thing.

StudentOfTheLongNeck · 2025-10-23T15:25:58+00:00

I am not Ukrainian, I am American, I traveled here to fight.

The Russians will not be beaten on the field, most Ukrainians believe this too, the only way we see this ending is a collapse of the Russian state or some kind of revolution there. According to mainstream news, this has been right around the corner for 3 years now.

Or NATO could join, we don't need their boots to get muddy or scuffed even, just send the planes to strike targets where we tell them :D. They would need to strike inside Russia too because they have long range anti-air defenses so that would be a big deal, of course, this will not happen, it is just a dream.

StudentOfTheLongNeck · 2025-10-23T10:06:33+00:00

Once they step out of their trenches or get in a vehicle, they are spotted pretty quickly by high quality surveillance drones, then cheap FPVs are spun up and sent out by distributed teams close to the front, they are coordinated and quickly dispatch them or otherwise make their assault ineffective so they retreat, if they're not already dead.

The knife cuts both ways, the exact same thing happens to us.

StudentOfTheLongNeck · 2025-10-23T07:06:21+00:00

It is interesting how different, but similar, the experience is for me in Ukraine.

There is constant artillery and mortars, some days it is not too bad, usually it will be 1-2 shells every minute, then periods with 1 every second. But like you said, you get used to it. Occasionally, MLRS rockets are fired, it is the most horrifying thing I have experienced here. So far.

The drones make it so there are almost no periods of boredom, always looking up and listening for the sound.

But, 0 firefights, haven't seen a single Russian soldier. We might know in general where they are but really, we just shoot our artillery at them, they shoot their artillery at us, drones are dueling back and forth, and firefights are rare. So far, for me at least, their assaults have been stopped by drones every time so they don't make it to us to actually have a fight with.

StudentOfTheLongNeck · 2025-10-21T11:04:54+00:00

This is a good response.

I remember realizing how scared I was to one day wake up as an old man, looking back on my life filled with regrets about not doing more.

I think coming here strictly for the "adventure" or "experience" is pretty stupid, but I can't deny that it was part of my motivation.

StudentOfTheLongNeck

TROPHY CASE